Chapter 12 - The Car at the Corner
We didn't sleep that night. Graham spent hours on the phone with his security detail, a discreet team of former law enforcement professionals he had kept on retainer ever since Vanessa’s fraud trial blew up the state’s financial district.
"The local police checked the perimeter," Graham said around two in the morning, pacing the hardwood floor of our living room. "No footprints in the gravel, no foreign tire tracks. Whoever dropped that letter knew our blind spots. The security cameras at the gate caught a momentary shadow at four o'clock, but the angle was blocked by the delivery van that was dropping off groceries."
I sat on the sofa, clutching a mug of tea that had long since gone cold. "My mother couldn't have done this alone, Graham. When her estate went into foreclosure, she could barely afford groceries, let alone hire someone who knows how to bypass private surveillance. And why leave a key for Lily?"
"The note mentioned Elmwood," Graham noted, turning to face me. "When the bank foreclosed on the Elmwood estate, an anonymous holding company bought the property at auction for cash. My lawyers tried to trace the entity at the time, but the paperwork ran through four different shell companies registered in Delaware and the Cayman Islands. We assumed it was just commercial land speculation."
"What if it wasn't?" The thought chilled me to the bone. "What if Vanessa had an accomplice we never found?"
The next morning, the tension lingered over breakfast like an impending storm. Lily ate her oatmeal in near silence, glancing up at us periodically. She was only nine, but she had lived through the trial, through the cameras and the public disgrace that Vanessa had tried to bring down on us. She had carried the silver flash drive that destroyed the wedding; she knew the taste of danger.
"Mom," Lily said, laying down her spoon. "Are we in trouble again?"
Graham knelt down beside her chair, taking her small hand in his. "No, Lily bug. Nobody is in trouble. But you remember how we talked about staying alert? Today, I’m going to drive you to school, and an officer in plain clothes is going to stay parked near the front office. Just until we figure out who left that envelope."
"Was it Aunt Vanessa?" Lily’s voice was small, but steady.
"Aunt Vanessa is locked away where she can’t hurt anyone," Graham assured her, his voice brimming with conviction. "I promise you that."
Twenty minutes later, Graham and Lily pulled out of the driveway in his SUV. I stood by the front window, drawing back the sheer curtain to watch them leave. As the SUV turned right onto the main road, my breath caught.
Parked fifty yards down the street, almost obscured beneath the drooping branches of an overgrown weeping willow, was a dark gray sedan. The windows were heavily tinted. As Graham’s car accelerated down the road, the sedan’s headlights flickered on, and it smoothly slipped into the lane behind him.
My pulse surged. I snatched my phone from the counter, hitting Graham’s speed dial.
"Graham," I choked out the second he answered. "Gray sedan. Just pulled out from under the willow tree right behind you."
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Through the speaker, Graham’s voice dropped into a terrifying calm. "I see him in the mirror, Hannah. Stay inside. Lock every door. Don't let anyone in."
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